Cincinnati Bengals Preseason: 3 Takeaways vs Washington
By Kenn Korb
3. The Starters Showed Up Well
Through the first two preseason games, the play of the Cincinnati starters were a clearly visible issue. Though it is tough to hold too much against them based on the situation (first actual live games in months, the games don’t matter standings-wise, it’s a very tiny sample size, certain key players didn’t even play, etc.), it was undoubtedly disheartening to see the expected starting units for the team fail to accomplish much and look pretty bad throughout the process.
Prior to this game, Andy Dalton led four Cincinnati drives. Those ended with two field goals, a punt and an interception. The offense did have a few decent starts to drives — three of the four drives lasted 11+ plays and gained at least 46 yards — but lackluster ends to those opportunities (two drives ended in the red zone, and another at the opposition’s 29-yard line) have to leave some degree of worry about the finishing ability of the group.
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The defense may have been even worse. In seven first-half drives for their opposition during the first two preseason games, they gave up five scores total, three touchdowns and two field goals. Two drives ended as punts, but none of the seven were three-and-outs, with one of the two drives ending almost exclusively due to unforced penalties by the opposition.
Fortunately for the team, the performance of the starting units on each side of the ball was much better.
Washington kept Kirk Cousins helming their offense into the third quarter, with him leading seven drives against Cincinnati. The Bengals defense exhibited a massively improved effort this time around; those seven drives became three punts, two field goals, a touchdown, and an interception.
Those three punts each came attached to three-and-outs. One of the two field goals came following a Cincinnati fumble in their own territory (the defense subsequently forced Washington to lose yardage before the 51-yard attempt). The interception was returned 62 yards for a touchdown.
Their offense wasn’t quite that impressive, but did enough to come away with the lead (14-13) by the time Dalton and the other main starters had checked out. A Dalton lost fumble and multiple three-and-outs weren’t great, but they came out of the gates strong with a 15-play, 87-yard scoring drive, which should help put to bed notions of the group not being able to finish off drives this year.
Outside of maybe one or two unexpected spare drives in the final preseason game, this is probably the last we’ll see of the major starters from these Bengals units. If this game is any indication, they should be set up just fine entering the season on both sides of the ball…